The Olympic play-to-lose badminton fiasco took a fresh twist when China's Yu Yang quit the sport in anguish, and later on Thursday black belt President Vladimir Putin and British leader David Cameron will grapple over Moscow's position on Syria in a day of judo diplomacy. Cameron welcomed Putin, honorary president of the International Judo Federation, to Downing Street and will urge the former KGB spy to take a tougher line on the civil conflict in Syria, Russia's firmest foothold in the Middle East.

Colombia's "cultural diplomacy" in Asia has helped the South American country open new markets and attract more investment, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The Maltese Embassy in Tunisia is also committed to enhance relations between Malta and Tunisia through cultural diplomacy and humanitarian assistance, amongst others. The embassy’s political work is currently focused on the holding of the Annual Maltese-Tunisian Mixed Commission meeting which this year is due to be held in Tunisia.

In the mass media and the blogosphere,both inside and outside China,commentators have been discussing the differences between the cultural segments of the Beijing and London ceremonies as representative of two opposed political systems.

Participants at the First Meeting on Public Diplomacy, organized by the Moroccan Association for Development and Parallel Diplomacy (AMADIP) in Rabat on July 27 and 28, stressed the need to unify visions and efforts of public diplomacy actors and have a proactive approach to diplomacy instead of a seasonal and folkloric one.